irontree.co.uk

I recently stumbled across a list of 120 ways to boost your brain power.

120 seemed rather a lot, however that made me think of the 121st way: cut the wheat from the chaff. So here is the Irontree, reduced and concentrated version.

• Do one thing at a time
• Switch off the TV
• Learn to juggle
• Embrace ambiguity. Learn to enjoy things like paradoxes and optical illusions
• Become a critical thinker. Learn to spot common fallacies
• Laugh!
• Conquer procrastination
• Play ‘brain’ games. Sudoku, crossword puzzles or countless others
• Be childish!
• Create a List of 100
• Learn a foreign language (or sign language)
• Sleep well

If you want to see the full 120 ways to boost your brain power list, check it out here.

The Trainer's Toolkit: Bringing Brain-friendly Learning to Life*
by Kimberley Hare and Larry Reynolds.

This book is a little different from the others we have reviewed here since it is firmly aimed at trainers, rather than the general public.

Although this is a bit of a text book, it still delivers quite a light-hearted approach to the concept of brain-friendly learning. The content includes a valuable selection of tools, ideas and strategies, all explained in common sense terms. Hare and Reynolds give a useful foundation for applying accelerated learning to teaching and training in a highly practical way.

Recommended reading.

[ * Amazon Associate Link]

The result from an intelligence test is the intelligence quotient or I.Q. In general, the higher ones I.Q. is, the more intelligent they are. A person who has an I.Q. of 100 is of average intelligence.

We owe much of our knowledge of IQ test to the French psychologist Alfred Binet, for it was he who designed the first standardized intelligence test.

Ever since Binet's day it has been a commonly held belief that our IQ remains the same throughout our lives. However, the hard science tended to contradict this common-sense idea. Although a small degree of intelligence does come from inheritance, a much larger proportion is formed through our environment and our own experiences.

This just in....

For users of our 20-20 Memory software, we have added a series of new files. These can be freely downloaded and used to extend the potential of the Memory practising program. These new file lists have been designed to push your mental visualisations to the limit.

Continuing our theme of offering some of the best brain training exercises... Here's a fun take on the Sudoku puzzle.

We have written about the value of these puzzles before. But here is an engaging online version. The browser-based applet allows you to slide tiles around a Sudoku board and drop them into the grid. There are a number of levels and Sudoku grids to choose from. As well as the usual 9 x 9 grid, the game also includes 4 x 4 and 6 x 6 grids, so even those completely new to the puzzle can get involved.

Try it out at www.jigsawdoku.com

Remember when 'aerobics' was all the rage? All that waving and jumping... all that Lycra!

Well, (chiefly thanks to the annoying Dr Kawashima's Brain Training for the DS-Lite), "Brain Training" is the new rock and roll; but you don't need to spend a penny to maintain the health of your brain, and there are two other major plus points too:

• it can actually do you some good;
• no Lycra is involved.

We thought, with Christmas just around the corner, you might be feeling a little brain-swamped and would enjoy a decent (free) Brain Workout. So, here's a smart 20 minute callisthenics work out from Time.com. Enjoy!

Examinations or Pub quizzes: Geography facts are everywhere.

You can use this simple PocketMem to help you learn the following:

Geography 1

• The Seven Hills of Rome
• The Seven Continents
• The Four Oceans
• Longitude and Latitude
• The Tropics

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This is a wonderful opportunity to hear of a modern miracle... and one explored by a fantastic personality.

Jill Bolte Taylor is a brain scientist with an extraordinary history.

One morning, a blood vessel in her brain 'exploded'. Jill realized that she had a ringside seat to her own stroke, and that she would be able to watch (and learn) as her brain functions closed down: motion, speech, memory, self-awareness ...

Amazed even to find herself alive, Jill spent the next eight years recovering her ability to think, walk and talk. Her reaction to discovering what was happening to her is both professional/technical, and superbly humorous("I'm a busy woman. I don't have time for a stoke"). Now, she has become a powerful spokesperson for stroke recovery and for the possibility of coming back from brain injury stronger than before.

Our popular PocketMem booklets have been missing an important element: the folding instructions.

Many of you have been commenting upon how useful they are, but how frustrating they are to fold. Well, here's the explanation.

How to fold a PocketMem [pdf file]

So now you have no excuses - download one of our free Sudoku PocketMems, print, fold it, and enjoy the puzzles.